All boaters are weather dependent unless they are crazy or have a death wish. We have several different weather applications we check each day, sometimes multiple times during the day as well as a weather feed we get from a meteorologist about the areas we’re traveling to. The weather is always gustier and more prone to storms in the winter even tho the hurricane season is in the summer so attention must be paid and respect given to what is happening outside the boat. To cross from Florida to The Bahamas we need to find a window of favorable weather and then make a run for it.
Work got done on the boat last week but I needed to be in Virginia as my Mom had passed away. Things happen for a reason and I believe the work on our boat was slow to allow me to easily travel home when needed. I arrived back in Florida on Wednesday and of course, that was the last day of a three day window to leave.
Today we finally left the boatyard and moved to an anchorage up the coast in North Ft Lauderdale on the ICW. The wind is gusting to 50 mph, rain showers come thru once in awhile but hey, we’ve not at the dock anymore. Progress is progress. We met up with the fuel barge on the way up and filled our tanks to the top as gas in the islands is much more expensive.
The weather is looking like it might be favorable for a crossing to Bimini on Sunday the 23rd. If we don’t make it then we may be stuck in Florida until after the New Year. So we’ll sit here at anchor for another day and a half, enjoying the quiet and readying everything to beat feet Sunday morning.
Cross your fingers the next post is from The Bahamas.
Our general plan is that we are going to be gone for the next 3-5 years and circumnavigate the Caribbean ending up in Panama. At that point if we’re still having fun we’ll turn around and come back the same way. If we’ve had our fill of the boating life we’ll take the north route off the coast of Mexico and the Gulf back to Ft Lauderdale to sell the boat and move onto the next phase of our adventure.